The widespread use of
social media provide instant information to bring users
more convenient lives. However, as social media platforms proliferate and there
is a lack of legal control over the information transmitted, the chance for the
unauthorized use of photographs and written materials increases. Copyright infringement became a severe problem in
China and the misuse of advertising photos on shopping websites is becoming a
common phenomenon. Many shop sellers are using others’ photos to advertise
their own products. Taobao, the biggest shopping website in China, has most
series copyright infringement problem. Although reporting system has been
implemented by Taobao, to prevent photo infringement, use of unauthorized
materials continues to lead to false advertising, which has never ended.
As photo
infringement had become a severe problem in China, IRP Team (Intellectual
Property) of Taobao and SAIC (State Administration of Industry and Commerce of
the people’s Republic of China) should implemented
some policies to solve this problem.
Proliferation of
advanced social media such as Weibo and shopping website enhance the large
amount of photos being exposed and shared on Internet, which encourages sellers
to use unauthorized photos from those platforms. Most illegal sellers get
infringing photos, especially from Weibo, as it shows high resolution photos. According
to a report (Tong, 2015), Taobao has often been criticized for offering counterfeit
products and has allowed merchants to sell these products without the brand’s
authorization. Large numbers of Taobao sellers post photos of products which
are manufactured by other shops, or advertise their own products by using other
shops’ brands to
attract more customers. SAIC released a report that claimed that 10.6% of
products sold on major Chinese websites on the Single's Day online shopping
holiday were not legitimate products from authorized dealers (Tong,
2015). This
shows that the advanced social media has worsened the problem of copyright
infringement and resulted in false advertisement.
One solution that Taobao has implemented to deal
with the problem is the IRT Protection System. An online reporting system
allows shoppers and shop holders to report sellers who are using unauthorised photos
to sell counterfeit goods. However, the online reporting system has not been
successful as the reporter has to provide series of original photos of products
to prove their ownership; the maximum size for uploaded photos is only 5MB.
Numerous reporters are complaining that they could only upload compressed
photos which look not much different from the photos being stolen. In many cases,
it is difficult for officers to differentiate between the original photos and copyright-infringing
photos. It shows that the requirements for reporters to report unauthorized
photos is contradict the reporting system itself. It seems impossible for
reporters to provide compressed photos with low resolution to demonstrate their
ownership, and it is also the reason why many officers were failed on their
investigation. The inefficient measurements explain why the false advertising
is still rampant in China now.
To deal with this problem in more efficient way,
a more efficient reporting system in Taobao should be developed. Firstly, the
IRP Protection System should increase more ways for people to provide
information and evidence during reporting process. According to List Of Ten
Best Online Shopping Website, Amazon is the top online retailer with the
largest sales in the world (John, 2013).It putting more effort in resisting
infringing photos through more complete and sophisticated reporting system to
prevent counterfeit products from being sold. Amazon allows photos to be
uploaded in forms of links if the image size is too big, and maximum fifty
products can be reported at the same time. It helps sellers to provide evidence
efficiently, and have higher chance to succeed in reporting. Secondly, more
details should be required from a reporter when reporting. In the case of
Taobao, the ownership of products and photos, especially between producers and
agents, is always difficult to be identified. Moreover, as it is common for
sellers and agents to advertise their products by posting photos on various
platforms, original producers or brands are hardly being traced and recognised.
Therefore, the reporting list should include detail information such as name of
producers and company, as well as personal information of shop owner and staff
who participate in the production of products and photos. As more information
is provided, progress for investigation and report auditing may not be so time-
consuming.
Apart from the development of reporting system,
SAIC should play an important role in supervising the operation of Taobao. As
mentioned before, Taobao’s reporting system has to be developed to increase the
efficiency of resisting infringing photos. There is also a penalty system to
alert and penalize sellers who use unauthorized photos. Their shops will be
removed from search list for few months or even permanently. However, it will
only succeed if IRT Team is fulfilling their obligation. Liang has reported that corruption between
sellers and IRT
officers have become common phenomena in Taobao
(Liang, 2012). Officers who accepted bribes help illegal sellers to remove
report towards them so those sellers can continue using infringing photos. It
shows that the collusion between shop owners and officers is one of the main
problem of false advertisement and photo infringement in Taobao. Any
anti-copyright infringement policies may not work effectively if corrupted
officers participate in IRP Team.
In order to prevent the operation of system
being disturb by the dishonest officers, SAIC have to increase pressure on
Taobao to supervise IRT Team by enhance relevant law. The criminal penalties to
corruption should be implemented strictly by Taobao managers to control their
officers. In 2012, under the pressure of SAIC, nine Taobao stores have closed
down and permanently barred from the Internet shopping platform after they
allegedly bribed Taobao employees for illegal gains (China Dairy, 2012). This
demonstrates that the surveillance of SAIC and the participation of Taobao
managers are essential in fighting with copyright infringement. The implement
of punishment to corruptive employees will also have deterrence effect on
Taobao officers to prevent further corruption in future.
In conclusion, the proliferation of social media
has encouraged the misuse of unauthorized photos and further has led to the
false advertising. The inefficiency of IRP Protection System and corruption
among Taobao employee allows photo infringement continue to occur rampantly in
Taobao. Therefore, development of a reporting system is essential to resist
infringing photos. Likewise, SAIC has responsibility to ensure that the
reporting system can be functioned effectively by supervise the IRP Team under
Taobao.
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